Tegan’s Turn?

As you may remember from before we shut down for the pandemic two years ago, my dogs and I volunteer at a local hospital as Pet Therapy teams. We had to pause through the worst of the Covid onslaught, of course, but we started back up again last spring. The dogs remembered what to do immediately. What they didn’t remember is that only one of them gets to go at a time.

Last week it was Zoe’s turn to go to the hospital.

Tegan was upset that she didn’t get to go with us. She wanted me to know that she was ready. And she wasn’t going to get off my Volunteer uniform until I promised that it was her turn this week.

My daughter took this picture of Tegan waiting at the door to the garage as I pulled in with Zoe after our Pet Therapy visit.

So Tegan and I went to the hospital today.

She goes into sled-dog mode when we get inside the hospital, pulling me towards friends she has yet to meet.

I wanted to get a photo of how much she enjoyed her visits. But every time I tried to get a photo of her smiling, she looked away.

I made her sit for a moment to try and capture her big doggie grin. I said “Show me your happy face.” She said “This is my happy face.”

When we go to the hospital, the staff treat the dogs as if they are rock stars. The nurses pull out their cell phones and take pictures to send to friends and family. When that happened today, I asked for the best photo of Tegan to be sent to me. This is it.

So I guess you’ll have to trust me that Tegan really does love to got to the hospital. Maybe next time I’ll get a photo of her smiling.